How to encode URLs?

When working with the ZenRows Scraper API, it’s crucial to encode your target URLs, especially if they contain query parameters. Encoding ensures that your URLs are correctly interpreted by the API, avoiding potential conflicts between the target URL’s parameters and those used in the API request.

Consider the following URL example:

https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/?course=web-scraping&section=advanced

If you were to send this URL directly as part of your API request without encoding, and you also include the premium_proxy parameter, the request might look something like this:

curl "https://api.zenrows.com/v1/?apikey=YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY&url=https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/?course=web-scraping&section=advanced&premium_proxy=true"

In this scenario, the API might incorrectly interpret the course and section parameters as part of the API’s query string rather than the target URL. This could lead to errors or unintended behavior.

To avoid such issues, you should encode your target URL before including it in the API request. URL encoding replaces special characters (like &, ?, and =) with a format that can be safely transmitted over the internet.

Here’s how you can encode the URL in Python:

import urllib.parse
encoded_url = urllib.parse.quote("https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/?course=web-scraping&section=advanced")

After encoding, your Scraper API request would look like this:

curl "https://api.zenrows.com/v1/?apikey=YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scrapingcourse.com%2Fecommerce%2F%3Fcourse%3Dweb-scraping%26section%3Dadvanced&premium_proxy=true"

Many HTTP clients, such as axios (JavaScript) and requests (Python), automatically encode URLs for you. However, if you are manually constructing requests or using a client that doesn’t handle encoding, you can use programming language functions or online tools to encode your URLs.

For quick manual encoding, you can use an online tool, but remember that this method is not scalable for automated processes.